~ Daily musings from a slightly bent brain.

Soapbox

Two freshly planted trees were uprooted sometime last weekend from the memorial garden of a city nonprofit organization that provides assistance to families coping with childhood cancer.

The Japanese maple trees were planted last week by volunteers and were stolen sometime between Saturday and noon on Sunday, said Marynell Noonan, executive director of the CURE Childhood Cancer Association, at 200 Westfall Road.

The trees were part of an expansion of the Julie Roberts Memorial Garden and were taken just before an annual remembrance service that was still held on Sunday.

In the first place, what kind of asshat steals someone’s trees — anyone’s trees? But to rip out trees in a memorial built for childhood cancer is even more despicable.

I’m sure that some of you reading this heard the story of Alyssa Bruno, who suffered from a form of brain cancer, and whose teacher solicited mail for her for her birthday. Alyssa got more than 20,000 cards and letters and some gifts and was delighted with it. Sadly, she died on August 24th, just a few days after her sixth birthday.

Having just had this sort of tragedy in the community makes it exceptionally outrageous that someone would stoop so low.

In the event you’re interested in a donation to replace the trees and the memorial, you can send your donations to Marynell Noonan, CURE Childhood Cancer Association, 200 Westfall Road, Rochester, NY 14623